A combination of factors kept me from doing the double duty I'd planned for Wednesday. But given the intensity of Wednesday night's training (and the lingering vibrations from Monday's two-a-day), I'm hardly worse for the lack of extra wear.
Prof Rodrigo showed three different techniques Wednesday evening, but two stood out as ones that are most likely to find their way into my game. One was the guard replacement/sweep I used to call "slingshot", the other was a sort of kickover from the shin block half guard. Here, you waited for the guy to posture back (or create that momentum yourself from the bottom). Then, by controlling the sweep side sleeve at the cuff with a cross grip and controlling the sweep side leg at the knee (assuming an opponent trying to pass low), you kick our your shin block leg to get the sweep while pulling on your grips.
Live Training/Open Mat was very good. I got to train first with Rodrigo in a ten-minute roll that felt more like five. Apropos of that blog post I've been meaning to write, I tried to train far more aggressively than usual, not allowing myself to linger too long in a situation that didn't seem productive in one sense or another. This is what Lance was after a few weeks ago, what other black belts like Jesse, Casey and even Profs Carlos and Rodrigo have, in different ways, tried to encourage this aspect of my game. I'm still planning on a separate post to really get into this idea. But for now, I'm just trying to flow with the go, as the kids say. And that go is both making me better and wearing me out.
Some very, very good success with the move I'm calling the Roger Gracie. It may end up being the best thing to come to my jiu jitsu since I started kicking the half guard as a blue belt. No point in getting too far ahead of myself - I've tasted this enthusiasm before, burning its way north from gut to gullet. But I may actually be able to finally see not just a technical latticework of endless if/then options, but a true through-line in my game, all the way from fist bump to finish. And that would be nothing short of awesome.
159.2 on the scale post-train, everything but the coat. Nice numbers if I can keep them.
